Cyberspace Communications finances for July 2004

Aug 3 05:57 UTC 2004

Here is the treasurer's report on Cyberspace Communications, Inc. finances 
through July 31st, 2004.

Beginning Balance     $4,360.63

Credits                 $264.00         Member contributions
                          $1.53         Interest on our savings account
                   ------------
                        $265.53

Debits                   $84.43         Pumpkin Rent for August
                         $61.02         Electricity for July
                         $92.08         Phone Bill
                        $135.00         DSL July 15 through August 15
                          $7.37         Paypal fees (income = $192)
                         $93.95         Summer Personal Property Taxes
                        $552.00         Insurance Premium
                         $20.00         Corporation filing fee
                   ------------
                      $1,045.85

Ending Balance        $3,580.31

Our current balance breaks down as follows:

$3,323.77               General Fund
  $173.99               Silly Hat Fund
   $60.00               Spare Parts Fund
   $22.55               Infrastructure Fund

The money is distributed like this:

  $199.28   Checking account
$3,381.03   Savings account earning 0.55% interest annually

We had one returning member (vanloons) in July.  We are currently at 
75 members, 68 of whom are paid through at least July 15th.  (The 
others expired recently and are in a grace period.)

Notes:

- Grex pays personal property tax on all the equipment it owns.  The 
tax is split into two parts, summer and winter taxes; the summer part 
is about twice as large as the winter part.

- Our lease to the Pumpkin requires that we carry liability insurance 
in case our equipment burns the building down.  The premium keeps 
going up, but this year it only went up $27, from $525 to $552.  It's 
a lot, by Grex's standards.

- All Michigan nonprofit corporations must file a "Corporation 
Information Update" form once a year, with the names of the board of 
directors and some other information.  The filing fee used to be $10, 
but it went up to $20 this year.

Thanks to everyone who contributed in July:

charcat, cross, gorg, jying, mooncat, remmers, and vanloons.

If you or your institution would like to become a member of Grex, it 
only costs $6/month or $60/year.  Send money to:

Cyberspace Communications
P. O. Box 4432
Ann Arbor, MI 48106-4432

If you pay by cash or money order, please include a photocopy of some 
form of ID.  I can't add you to the rolls without ID.  (If you pay 
with a personal check that has your name pre-printed on it, we 
consider that a good enough ID.)  Type !support or see 
http://www.cyberspace.org/member.html for more info.

response 2 of 21:

Aug 4 15:35 UTC 2004

Wait, what kind of ID do you require for an 'institution' ?

P.S. The ID rule is stupid.

response 4 of 21:

Aug 4 19:04 UTC 2004

Re #2: Institutions are required to designate a contact person for the
organization.  THat person needs to submit ID to Grex, according to the same
standards as an individual member.

response 6 of 21:

Aug 5 06:43 UTC 2004

re 4 So , theoretically, the corporation of Arbornet could become a member
of Grex?  Giving anyone who has a membership on m-net (where the ID rule does
NOT exist) full access to GreX ?

response 8 of 21:

Aug 5 13:16 UTC 2004

It would be a non-voting membership, and all those users would have 
to use the same userid and password.  And, any abuse of the account 
would receive the same response as abuse of any other account.  
Given that probability and those limitations, Arbornet would have to 
be run by idiots to bother wasting the money to make that option 
available to anyone who is a member of Arbornet.  That being said, 
feel free to make a donation of any amount to Grex in the name of 
Arbornet.  We'll accept it.  

Oh, and the designated representative of the coorporation will still 
have to meet the ID requirement.

response 10 of 21:

Aug 5 19:27 UTC 2004

Perhaps more people would become members if the new computer were online.
Or the current members would be willing to raise the contribution amount.
Is it time to cut one more phone line?

response 12 of 21:

Aug 6 00:57 UTC 2004

Oh, nevermind.  I thought there was a different price for a corporate
membership

response 14 of 21:

Aug 6 12:35 UTC 2004

Less interesting than Feynman's autobiography, polytarp.

response 16 of 21:

Aug 6 22:52 UTC 2004

Yeah, he borrowed my copy, which I need to get back from him, I might add,
if only to read it again because it is so well written.

response 18 of 21:

Aug 9 21:46 UTC 2004

Well, perhaps you could learn from it !

response 20 of 21:

Sep 2 23:36 UTC 2004

I've been unexpectedly detained out of town (see agora item 2), and will
enter the next treasurer's report when I get back in a few days.